Doctor Goebbels: His Life & Death
Page 96
weapon, like a ticking bomb, and fling it back in his face. During the humiliating
British retreat to Dunkirk in May 1940, he made devastating use of the British
584 GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH
soldiers’ ditty about hanging about the washing on the Siegfried Line.25 For a while
Mr Churchill’s famous V-for-victory device caused Goebbels headaches: the B.B.C.
hammered it out in Morse code as the opening bar of Beethoven’s Fifth symphony,
and it appeared overnight as graffiti on walls all over occupied Europe. In July 1941
he hit on the solution. ‘I’m taking over that letter V for ourselves,’ he announced in
his diary, delighted at the simplicity of the solution. We’re going to say it stands for a
German victory. Like a dream!’26 Three years later he would reload that ‘V’ and fire
it back at London, this time standing for Vergeltung, revenge.
RIBBENTROP still stood in his way. On February 17, 1940 the British violated Norwegian
neutrality to board an unarmed homebound German fleet auxiliary, the Altmark.27
There were rich propaganda pickings for both sides, but Churchill won the race by
five hours because the foreign ministry in Berlin sat on the dispatches.28 Livid with
rage Goebbels ordered his editors to concentrate on the Altmark incident. ‘Even
those newspapers normally accustomed to sparing the nerves of their readers are to
use italic and bold faces,’ he dictated.29
The rivalry between the two ministries was an odd situation. Goebbels had a large
foreign section, with which he pursued his own foreign policy; he even had, based in
the Stock Exchange building in Hamburg, his own foreign intelligence agency drawing
information from its own agents all over neutral and occupied Europe.30
Ribbentrop’s foreign ministry had its own sections for press, cultural policies, and
propaganda. Since Hitler had his own press chief, Dietrich, three conflicting ‘official’
viewpoints often appeared in the same editorial office.31 Goebbels was unable to
prevail upon Hitler to remedy this anomalous position. He had yet to outlive the
harm done by the Lida Baarova episode.
He often saw Hitler however over lunch. On March 1, 1940 Hitler delivered a
three hour monologue to the gauleiters explaining why the weather still precluded
any operations in the west. ‘The Führer is a genius,’ concluded Goebbels afterwards.
‘He’s going to build the first Germanic people’s empire.’ He went on debating with
Hitler until one A.M. that night. Back at Schwanenwerder it took him hours to get to
GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH 585
sleep, what with the vivid plans and day-dreams.32 By a decree later that month he
was confirmed as a permanent member of the Cabinet-like ministerial council for
Reich defence along with Himmler, Bouhler, Johannes Popitz, and Milch.33 True,
they had no idea what Hitler was planning. But Goebbels’ trust in him was complete.
‘Big question,’ he wrote on April 2, 1940, referring to Yellow. ‘When does it start?’
Like Ribbentrop, Hess, Dietrich, and every other top civilian he was totally in the
dark about Hitler’s real next operation, against Scandinavia.34 He continued to
polemicize about the western powers’ ‘plans to enlarge the war’ through the first
week in April, while going about his other humdrum business.35 Addressing editors
on the fifth he dropped opaque hints about their plans for the New Europe. ‘Today
we say Lebensraum and anybody can make of that what he wants.’36 He inspected a
great new German invention, the tape recorder.37 And he laboured at his propaganda
mills. He had established several ‘black’ transmitters, to carry his subversive messages
directly to millions of French and British radio listeners, eroding their confidence
in victory and spreading rumour and confusion.38 His French transmitters were codenamed
Concordia and Humanité, the latter being a ‘communist’ station run by his
brilliant broadcasting expert Dr Adolf Raskin.39 His trump card was the Irish broadcaster
William Joyce, whose overstated English accent earned him the nickname
Lord Haw-Haw. Around the world the mocking, intellectual content of his broadcasts
gained him millions of listeners.40
At Gutterer’s suggestion Dr Goebbels rocketed over the French lines millions of
pornographic postcards: one, a translucent illustrated postcard entitled Le Tommy, òu
est-il resté? (‘Where’s Tommy?’) implied British hanky-panky at the rear while the
French soldier was valiantly holding the line. The face of the postcard showed trenches,
barbed wire, and a bloodstained French soldier; but held up to the light, the hidden
picture revealed a nude man in bed with a woman, with a picture of her husband in
French uniform on the wall.41 Other rockets showered the French with familiar glossy
black cartons of cigarette paper that bore however the slogan, ‘Why die for Danzig?’
and with each sheet arguing that Britain had lured the French into this war. Hitler
was dubious, reminding Goebbels that leaflet propaganda had not helped the Nazi
586 GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH
party into power. But, he conceded, leafleting flights helped to conceal that the
Luftwaffe was taking aerial photographs of vital enemy locations.42
Despite Hitler’s current refusal to forewarn him of his strategic intentions, Goebbels
had become a personality of world stature. When the American magazine Life invited
him to contribute four articles he dictated his own terms.43 His propaganda staged
many coups that spring. In Warsaw the Nazis had captured Polish diplomatic documents
which with a little creative editing by Goebbels illustrated Roosevelt’s meddling
in pre-war European affairs. A French newspaper published a photograph of
Roosevelt’s emissary Sumner Welles visiting the French prime minister; behind them
was a map of Europe on which the French had divided up Germany, Italy, and Yugoslavia
among their neighbours. Goebbels reissued the map, with a few deft embellishments,
for the foreign press.44 Throughout that otherwise quiet first week of April
the French and British capitals rang with recriminations and denials. But the world
already had an even more stunning Hitler coup to cope with.
NOT until late on April 8, 1940 did Hitler send for Goebbels and inform him, during
a stroll in the Chancellery gardens, that he was invading Denmark and Norway at
dawn. Guns, troops, and ammunition were at that very moment entering Norwegian
waters, concealed inside colliers.45 Asked by an astonished Dr Goebbels how he
expected the Americans to take this new operation, Hitler responded that he did not
really care. ‘Material aid from them cannot come into play for about eight months,
and manpower about a year and a half.’ This did however make it essential to win the
war before 1941 ended. Hitler had sent off all the foreign military attachés to inspect
their western defences to get them out of the way. Only one, the Norwegian, had
declined to go. Goebbels added to the smoke-screen by organising a mass meeting in
that evening. Meanwhile he secretly mobilized key staff members without being able
to tell them exactly why. To those asked why he had spent so long over at the Chancellery,
he explained
that the Führer was dissatisfied with his work.
That Hitler pulled off this master-stroke on the ninth only hours before Churchill
landed his own expeditionary force in Norway gave Hitler an aura of semi-right-
GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH 587
eousness. At lunch that day he was again speaking of a new Germanic empire. Goebbels
warned editors not to mention their paratroop operations.46 On the tenth, as victory
seemed assured, he directed that the German public must be left in no doubt that
this had been the most audacious wartime operation ever staged.47 The German naval
losses were severe. An ancient Norwegian coastal battery had torpedoed the cruiser
Blücher in Oslo fiord with heavy loss of life. Eberhard Taubert, one of his best men,
gave him an eye-witness account (‘As the Blücher went down there was one last
infantryman on deck. He saluted and the survivors stood to attention. A cheer went
up for the Führer.’)48
Hitler spoke again to Goebbels of a nordic German league. Politically, however, he
fumbled, putting the renegade Norwegian Vidkun Quisling in charge of a
collaborationist government. It was an unpopular move in Norway, but Goebbels
ordered his press to back Quisling so long as their Führer did.49
The fighting unexpectedly grew stiffer, particularly at Narvik.50 Fritzsche warned
that the British were fighting vigorously and with great courage; Goebbels became
quite thoughtful. ‘We’re going to have to take them more seriously,’ he decided.51
1 Diary, Jan 24, 25, 1940.
2 Ibid., Feb 2, 3, 1940.
3 Ibid., Jan 17, Mar 10, 1940.
4 Ibid., Feb 10, 1940.
5 Ibid., Feb 17, 22, 23, 1940.
6 Ibid., Jan 9, 1940.
7 JG to Hitler, Jan 10; Hitler read it Jan 29: Lammers to JG, Jan 29, 1940 (Reich Chancellery
files, NA film T120, roll 3198, E530667ff)
8 MinConf., Jan 19, 104; the editor was Gunter d’Alquèn—see his affidavit, Apr 22, 1948
(StA Nurnberg, G-15).
9 MinConf., Jan 5, Feb 6, 1940. A second foreign press club was opened on Jan 10, 1941.
‘Dr Goebbels delivered the speech of welcome,’ reported Louis Lochner on Jan 26, ‘and
turned the club rooms over to us. They are beautifully appointed and there are plenty of
telephone lines, typewriters, newspapers, and news bulletins available.’ (FDR Libr: Toland
papers, box 52).
588 GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH
10 MinConf., Mar 1, 1940.
11 Ibid., Jan 2; diary Jan 3, 1940.
12 MinConf., Feb 8, 1940.
13 VB, Apr 6; diary, Aug 2, 1940.
14 Meldung, Jan 5; MinConf., Jan 9, 1940.
15 MinConf, Jan 13, 1940.
16 Ibid., May 18, 20, Dec 23, 1940, Feb 7, 1941.
17 Ibid., Jan 17, 31, Mar 7, 1940.
18 Ibid., Apr 10, May 11, 25, 1941.
19 Unpubl. diary, Nov 19, 1941.
20 MinConf., Jan 27, 1940.
21 Ibid., Apr 12, 1940.
22 Ibid., May 9, 1940.
23 Minutes by Dr Immanuel Schäffer, Sep 7, and by Werner Naumann, Sep 12, 1944 (Yivo,
Occ E2-68).
24 MinConf., Apr 13, 1940.
25 Ibid, May 25, 1940.
26 Diary, Jul 8, 1941.
27 Ibid., Feb 19, 20, 1940.
28 Directive No.368 from RMVP press conf., Feb 18, 1940 (BA, Brammer files).
29 Press conf., Feb 19, 1940; Boelcke, 289.
30 This Aufklärungsausschuß Hamburg, run by a Dr Johannsen with Staatsrat Dr Helferich,
had agents in Budapest, Ankara, Stockholm, Sofia, Bratislava, Madrid and (Bertram de
Colonna) in Lisbon; see SAIC report CIR.4 on the organisation of the RMVP and RPL, Jul
19, 1945 (NA: RG.332, ETO MIS-Y, box 116). Some of the agency’s files are in BA
Militärarchiv (BA-MA): RW.49 (in records of the Abwehr’s Bremen field office) with a supplementary
collection in Hamburg city archives. For its finances see BA files R.55/381, /
382, and /383 (with a note on its origins, Dec 1, 1939), duties, /1338; organisation, /1425,
and ZStA Potsdam, Rep.50.01, RMVP, vols.994, 995.—Yivo, and BA file R.55/1425.—
Unpubl. diary, May 1, 1942.
31 Rosenberg diary, May 8, 1940.
32 Diary, Mar 2, 1940.
33 Lammers, decree of Mar 1940 (NA film T84, roll 175, 4957).
34 Affidavit by Karl-Jesco von Puttkamer, May 25, 1948 (StA Nuremberg, G15).
35 Diary, Apr 6, 7, 8, 1940.
36 Ibid., Apr 6; VB, Apr 6; text publ. by H A Jacobsen, Der Zweite Weltkrieg (Frankfurt, 1965),
180f.
37 Diary, Apr 16, 1940.
38 Ibid., Jan 17, Mar 5, 1940.
39 Ibid., Jan 3, 4, 20, 23, Feb 10, 1940. For Humanité’s broadcasts May 1 to Jun 24, 1940
see Ortwin Buchbinder, Geheimsender gegen Frankreich (Bonn, 1984).
40 Diary, Jan 5, 6, Mar 14, 1930.
41 Ibid., Feb 13, Mar 12, 15, 1940; Gutterer MS (loc. cit), 84f, and interview. The French
retaliated with their own porno-leaflets (MinConf., Feb 17, 1940).
GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH 589
42 Diary, Mar 27, 28, Apr 25, 26, May 8, 1940.
43 MinConf., Apr 4; Life, Aug 5, 19, Sep 23, Dec 30, 1940.
44 L’Illustration, Paris, Mar 16, 1940. Bernd Martin, Friedensinitiativen, 220; Reuth, Goebbels,
442f.
45 Diary, Apr 9; Lieutenant Colonel Hasso von Wedel, chief of Wehrmacht propaganda,
handed him Keitel’s directive on the operation (Weserübung) on Apr 9, 1940 (ZStA Potsdam,
Rep.50.01, RMVP, vol.878). Wedel, a passionate and amply proportioned gourmet cook,
became JG’s bête noire. Wedel’s papers are in BA-MA, RW.4 and see his memoirs, Die
Propagandatruppen (Neckargemünd, 1962).
46 Diary, Apr 10; MinConf., Apr 9, 1940.
47 MinConf., Apr 10, 1940.
48 Diary, Apr 18, 1940.
49 Ibid., Apr 12, 14, 18, 25; MinConf., Apr 26, 1940.
50 Diary, Apr 25, 1940.
51 Ibid., Apr 30, 1940. In fact the French Alpine chasseurs and some Norwegian units
fought with conspicuous gallantry; the English bravely, but less so.
590 GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH
Goebbels
38: Knocking out Front Teeth
JOSEPH Goebbels’ life is already nine-tenths over. Hilde has just had her first day
at school; life’s little milestones are flashing past in a blur. His pride and joy are
his four daughters. ‘What a delight it is to see the clever, pretty little lasses slowly
getting bigger,’ he writes, unconsciously excluding his slow-witted infant son from
his sentiments.1 Once he finds that Magda has dressed Helmut in a frilly silk blouse.
‘That’s not right for a boy,’ he snaps at her, sending him off to change. ‘We’re not the
Ribbentrops or Görings. People expect different of us!’2 He has had little time for
his family during the Norwegian campaign. His health is indifferent, and he consults
Dr Morell about an itchy rash which he puts down to poor diet.3
Magda tells him that her father is ill. Goebbels merely sniffs. He lacks any feeling
toward old Oskar Ritschel. She goes alone to the hospital in Duisburg.4 Gradually